11 comments to The Spokesmen #1 – August 20, 2006

I am so uninterested in whether Floyd doped or not. In fact, I would be surprised if he didn’t. But, anyway, it’s a dead horse, and it’s not all that interesting from my cycling perspective.

Every now and then, I play touch football. But I’m not into following the NFL. I like to bike race sometimes, but I could never be a pro, and I don’t really follow them.

I don’t know what to say, really, other than if all you are going to do is cover pros and high end cycling, then don’t use just the words “cycling roundtable” to describe the show. You gonna talk to any ESL commuters on beater Huffy bikes? Didn’t think so.

Thanks for your comment. As I said in the introduction to the show, The Spokesmen is a roundtable discussion surrounding the “news of the day in the world of cycling.” It just so happens that the biggest story in cycling right now, in fact one of the biggest stories in sports, is Floyd Landis. This story has been on the front page of every major newspaper in the world and on every news show from Los Angeles to Moscow.

To be totally fair, the first episode of The Spokesmen did not solely cover the Floyd Landis affair. In fact, we also covered a cycling commuter in England who was fined for simply riding his bike on the road, a school district in Kansas who is trying to regulate who can ride their bikes to school and who can’t, a proposed new law in the EU concerning cyclists, motorists and liability, and more.

Please listen to the whole show (and the next) and see if we don’t change your mind.

If there were no drugs scandles in Cycling then the mainstream ‘News’ media would never mention cycling and there would be a whole load less discussion and new people being tempted to start cycling….. wonder if now they’re starting for the right reasons

Just wanted to give you fellas a “Kudos”… Great format, and all three of you balance each other out well. I am a regular listener to all three shows, and am glad to have a fourth for the week listening pleasure

Just one topic I would like to hear more about or investigated deeper. This was brought up once in an ITV interview with Phil Liggett, but I have not heard anything further, and that is the fact the Floyd landis was test 9 times during the Tour, and 3 times after stage 17, and none of those tests came up positive.. how about testing every sample for Floyd, or any other rider for the matter that the racing officials have for the Tour?

Just wanted to give you fellas a “Kudos”… Great format, and all three of you balance each other out well. I am a regular listener to all three shows, and am glad to have a fourth for the week’s listening pleasure

Just one topic I would like to hear more about or investigated deeper. This was brought up once in an ITV interview with Phil Liggett, but I have not heard anything further, and that is the fact the Floyd landis was test 9 times during the Tour, and 3 times after stage 17, and none of those tests came up positive.. how about testing every sample for Floyd, or any other rider for the matter that the racing officials have for the Tour?

I too like the format and can’t wait for the next show. The second half of this one, dicussing cyclists rights vs. motorists, was interesting. The first half lost my interest. There wasn’t a lot of new information for those of us following the Floyd Landis doping story. The show did need a little more give and take a la TWIT. For example, the self-introductions in the middle of the show would have had less dead air if the panelists had shared the information beforehand and interviewed one another.

Getting back to the show topics, I’ve found that the most dangerous motorist is the inattentive one. Luckily, I haven’t had anyone deliberately try to hit me. But I have run into three cars whose drivers weren’t paying attention while turning right. As a consequence, now I am very aggressive in claiming my share of the road and directing drivers around me. I want every driver near me to know I’m there. Unfortunately, I also now commute very little and try to find separate bike paths for my rides. Luckily, I have a very good mountain bike and live near a lot of dirt.

I was happy to find the new format for this past week. I have been listening to the FredCast for the past month or so and have enjoyed the topics. I have listened to a few podcasts in the past on cycling and they just didn’t seem to have good topics. I think discussing the news, maybe products, rides coming up, and a feature on a particular aspect of cycling or commuting or an interview would be a cool well rounded format. I wasn’t sure if the group was getting together once a month or every week or what the plan was.
To a certain extent, the Floyd stuff is getting old, but people still want to know, I didn’t know about the sponsor pullouts until I heard it here. What a shame.
Mike

Some great points raised guys. I can agree in many ways about the Landis news issue. But, as David has mentioned it has hit the mainstream press in a big way. I know it is fair to say that many of us may be tired of discussing and hearing about it. But, it is also fair to say that because of it (as someone mentioned already) there may be alot of new ears listening in to the sport with all the attention. And, at least in my opinion, I think it may be good to show new cyclists or even people with a passing intrest what general cycling fans think of the issue instead of just having it creep through the normal everyday press. And, there was more in the first cast that crept up than just the Pro issues.

I hope we can make things even more interesting in future. And maybe one day I will work out my umms and ahhhs and duuuhhs and actually be able to formulate an articulate opinion.

Hey guys great concept and I really enjoyed the first show … the Landis discussion I think showed how this issue has everyone coming from a different direction, but coming together over the real issue of getting this whole issue of testing resolved … I agree whole heartedly on the point made that if the lab is questionable, and WADA won’t hold them to high standards then how can we truly know if someone has doped … I was also interested in hearing how cycling and cyclists are treated amongst 3 very different countries and cultures (that discussion was a real ear opener) … can’t wait for show #2!

I enjoyed the initial program very much. This format is an excellent idea. Please give some consideration to including discussion of different types of cycling such as Mountain Biking, Joe Polk from the MTB cast for example. It would be great to hear from some fellow cycle commuters and folks who tour. It might be fun as well to hear from some of the â€œcrackpotsâ€ from the iBob list or the best of the best, Sheldon Brown.